Benoit Paire battles past Leonardo Mayer into the second round – ATP Orbetello Challenger 2011
World number 122 Benoit Paire of France rallied back from a deficit of one set to beat Argentinean Leonardo Mayer, ranked 199th in the world, in three sets 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-1 in the opening round at the ATP Orbetello Challenger
in Italy on Tuesday. The match lasted for two hours and two minutes.
Mayer dominated the first set, breaking the French in the third and fifth game to claim the set 6-2. The Argentinean kept his first serve percentage at 72 percent in the opening set. The six feet and two inches tall won eleven
of the thirteen first service points and did not lose even a single point on the second serve. The Buenos Aires resident won both break points he received on the Frenchman’s serve in the first set.
Paire and Mayer broke each other two times in the second set and tied the score at 6-6, taking the set to a tie-break. The French grabbed a single mini-break in the tie-break, capturing it 7-5. The seventh seed fired two aces,
keeping his first serve percentage at 75 percent and converting 70 percent of the first serves into points in the second set. Paire returned brilliantly as he won an incredible 40 percent of the first return points in the second set. The French capitalised
on two of the four break points he received on Mayer’s serve and saved one of the three break points on his owns serve in the second set.
After winning a close second set, Paire crushed Mayer, allowing his opponent to win just a single game and breaking the Argentinean three times to win the third set 6-1. The French delivered 69 percent of the first serves and three
aces in the final set. Just like the second set, the 22-year-old won 100 percent of the second service points in the deciding set. Paire also returned quite well, winning ten of the sixteen points on the first returns. He converted three of the six break points
he faced on the Argentinean’s serve in the third set.
The French is slated to take on either Italian Matteo Trevisan or Marco Cecchinato in the second round.
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